Passenger air bag modules are typically mounted within the instrument panel or dashboard of the vehicle. A typical passenger air bag module includes a housing, which facilitates the mounting of the passenger air bag module to the vehicle and provides a reaction surface for deployment forces, a single or dual stage inflator mounted to the housing, an air bag, and a cover. The prior art teaches a wide variety of methods to couple the air bag module to the instrument panel or dashboard. Typically, the backside of a passenger air bag module is coupled to a vehicle's cross-car beam using a depending flange. While cross-car beam provides a very stable platform for absorbing reaction forces of the deploying air bag, its relative location within a vehicle often changes due to standard manufacturing tolerances. As such, the use of a vehicle's cross-car beam as a positional reference point often leads to poor fit and finish characteristics of the air bag cover with respect to the instrument panel.
Other systems have attempted to alleviate this problem by incorporating an air bag cover directly into an instrument panel. Unfortunately, after a deployment of the air bag, such systems require the replacement of the entire instrument panel or support surface. This significantly increases the cost and complexity of repairing the vehicle after an air bag deployment event.